Shadow the Hedgehog

"Shadow is back, in black"

Ah, the Sonic series has finally gotten into the darker set of things. If that's for the good or bad, well that's for you to decide. Shadow The Hedgehog is set a little while after SA 2, from what I can tell. Unlike Sonic games in the recent past for consoles, you will have full control of Shadow the whole time, no switching characters or things like that.

Game play has been, well, it's certainly the biggest change in this Sonic game. Not only is the fast paced, and I mean, fast, action here, but also the game adds guns to the mix. There are a variety of guns, everything from pistols, to alien technology repeater guns. The game, if you haven't played before, is lightning fast and will confuse and make you mad when you first start. The fighting is pretty well done though. I was never out of options to destroy an enemy, even though bullets ran out to fast.

The one problem I had with the game was the camera problems. I had so many camera angle problems, that that's probably why the fast paced action was so hard. I would constantly get lost or confused on where I was going, run into walls, or just not know what was happening. It was very annoying, and brought the game down tremendously. Vehicles were also tiring to use when you had the slim chance to use them, such as a pair of jumping legs. The AI weren't to smart, and were easily beat. And there were hardly any boss battles. That really disappointed me, in some play through, you would go threw two at most, and one being the final battle.

Being a shooter, and a Sonic fan, I was pretty happy with the new action for the game, but I wouldn't recommend using it in games iof the future, unless only Shadow uses them. The game was fun to say the least, just not enough to make me saw, oh yes. I think the the game tried to hard to be mature. With Shadow cursing and the gun action, I felt that the game was trying to be more than it's put up to be, and I wasn't happy about that.

If there is one thing in the game I was most disappointed in, was the story. It starts out great. Shadow is standing in a park; thinking about the few memories has left, since after SA2, he lost all his memories saving the world. The only thing he has left is his name, and a vision of running a girl named Maria threw a long hall and her being brutally killed.

Shadow The Hedgehog doesn't really prove to be that great after the awesome starting scene though. It only takes freckin two – five hours to beat. And the games endings, though all different, aren't as great as say, KOTORs multiple endings. There are a lot more endings in Shadow The Hedgehog than KOTOR or Fable, but they just don't give a lot of info. The game is so short, and so confusing right during the middle, that it fails to do anything to help it.
I liked how the game added multiple Sonic players in the game in every stage, that was really cool. Even if they hardly did anything but follows you.

I was amazed at how well the music went with the game. The hard core rock and metal music was perfect for Shadow, the badass of the Sonic series. It also set the mood really well, seeing as how the game is a lot darker than other Sonic games. The characters also sounded really good. They have been getting more and more impressive every game, which is really great. The guns didn't sound very realistic though, they sounded all the same after a while, and I was really disappointed with that. I was really impressed with how well everything in this category was, and no complaints.

Another part of STH I was surprised by, as Shadow The Hedgehogs graphics. This game looks spectacular. Even in game it looked awesome. The first cut scene will surprise you, Shadow is the best he has ever looked, and so are the environments. The orange suns glare down on the setting is really cool, and adds tons of realism to it. The enemies and other Sonic Heroes look wonderful to no extent. These are the best Sonic graphics ever, and it shines on the X-Box, or any system you play it on. Why everyone, even the humans have enormous clown feet though, is beyond me though.

STH is a good game, and a fun addition to the series, it just has many major flaws. Even though there are over 300 different ways you can go in the game and different endings, they really don't add give as great of a feel like KOTORs endings did, and why its hard to have a decent camera is confusing me as well. It is a decent rent. It just isn't long enough for you to buy. I was completely disappointed at how short it was, and the camera will aggravate you to know end. But its still fun and looks awesome. But overall, that game looks wonderful, and sounds awesome. Shadow is one tuff cookie, even if he has more head cases that a whole insane asylum.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/10/05, Updated 01/04/07